Karnataka Polls: How the numbers stack up after 2018 Assembly elections

Political parties in fray have been striving hard to get an edge over the other with the help of their manifestos and vigorous campaigning

With Karnataka Assembly elections around the corner, political parties are in jitters as the voting slated for May 10 could change their fortunes in the state.

Parties have been striving hard to get an edge over the other with the help of their manifestos and vigorous campaigning.

While the BJP has left no stones unturned for a second term in the state, the Congress, JD(S) and all those contesting are playing on the front foot to claim the majority this time round.

While the outcome of the Assembly elections will only be determined after the counting on May 13, let us take a look at how the numbers have been stacked up in the Assembly after the 2018 elections.

Credit: IndiaVotes

The Bharatiya Janata party claimed a majority in 104 seats while the Congress came second in line with 80 seats under its leadership followed by JD(S) with 37 seats.

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Initially, the Karnataka Assembly elections 2018 were held for only 222 seats on May 12.

The voting process in two other seats, namely, Jayanagar and Rajarajeshwari Nagar had been postponed to May 28 owing to the death of the sitting BJP MLA, BN Jayakumar, and voter fraud respectively.

Though Congress bagged both seats, Munirathna, the winner of the Rajarajeshwari Nagar constituency left the party and joined the BJP in 2019.

In terms of vote share, the BJP had 36.2 per cent while INC and JD(S) had 39 per cent and 18.3 per cent respectively. Despite winning more seats than the Congress, the BJP’s vote share was around 3 percentage points higher as per the data compiled by India Votes hinting that the voters of the Grand Old Party were more scattered than that of the BJP.

Apart from the majority winners, one seat was secured by an Independent candidate H Nagesh in the Kolar district while N Mahesh contesting from the Bahujan Samaj Party bagged a seat in the Chamarajanagar district.

R Shankar, son of M Ramachandra from Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party had won a seat in the Haveri district back in 2018.